Saturday, March 05, 2011

Speaking at the launch of his book 'Mr Rotten's Scrapbook', he told BANG Showbiz: "I never liked the moniker punk, it was given to us by Caroline Coon (journalist and artist), who called me the King of Punk, but when I found out what the world meant, like, somebody's bottom boy in an American prison, I was none too thrilled with the concept."

Coon might have called Lydon King Of Punk, but the use of the word "punk" surely derives from Creem magazine from back when Lydon was still in short trousers; by the time McClaren was pushing his boys onto the bandwagon, the connection between prison sex and the word had surely been broken?

Lydon's recollections of punk suggests that the Sex Pistols documentary, as yet unscheduled by Channel 4, should make great viewing. "The truth about punk will get out," insists Lydon. "It was not an intellectual movement orchestrated by Malcolm McLaren. We didn't set out to be seen as some great, culturally significant force. If we had an aim, it was to force our own, working-class opinions into the mainstream, which was unheard of in pop music at the time."

If it was all your own, how come you didn't come up with your own name for what you were doing?